This Day, That Year

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

In 1980, the country’s first Special Economic Zones were set up in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong province and Xiamen, Fujian province, to encourage overseas investment and boost the country’s economic growth.

Shenzhen attracted 14 percent of the country’s total foreign investment in 1992. It is the country’s major trade hub and leading manufacturing base.

Following the successful development of the Special Economic Zones, China established its first 14 national economic and technological development zones in 1984.

In 1992, a national economic and technology development zone was established in Yangpu, Hainan province.

As reform and opening-up deepens, there are 219 such zones across the country.

The economic zones and industrial clusters that emerged after the country’s reform and opening-up have made crucial contributions to the phenomenal economic growth. They successfully tested the market economy.

To further open up, the country’s first Free Trade Zone was established in Shanghai in 2013, serving as an important channel for prime foreign products entering China.

A number of measures have been taken to facilitate trade by promoting the negative list for foreign investors, which removed several restrictions on foreign investment, and the single-window service for businesses, mean- ing all necessary facilities are available in one place.

So far, 11 such pilot zones have been set up.